Gun registry data should be preserved: legal clinic

An Ontario judge is allowing the City of Toronto to officially support a court challenge seeking to preserve the data in the defunct federal long-gun registry.

A Toronto legal clinic for female victims of domestic violence is trying to keep the records safe until the court rules on its constitutional challenge of legislation that dismantled the controversial firearm registry and it will now get a helping hand from city officials.

The judicial support comes despite protest from federal government lawyers who argued the city merely “seeks a platform to tell the court why guns are dangerous.”

“The victims of domestic violence are predominantly women,” the clinic argued in court.

“Changes to the existing gun control regime will increase the risk of physical violence, forcible confinement at threat of physical violence, serious physical harm, serious psychological harm and homicide to women in situations of domestic violence,” according to the clinic

It claims killing the registry infringes the rights to life, liberty and security of the person by causing harm to women and will have a disproportionate impact on women by putting them at increased risk of injury or death due to their gender.

The City of Toronto submitted an affidavit of Dr. Barbara Yaffe, its associate medical officer of health, outlining the city’s perspective that firearms violence is a serious threat to public health and safety.

Ontario Superior Court Justice David M. Brown said evidence showed that the city has addressed “the issue of gun control in a very public way for many years.”

This included: “issues relating to the impact of guns on domestic violence, a central allegation raised by the clinic,” Justice Brown said.